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Europe for sale: A controversial bailout for European treasures

In France, the caretakers of Versailles have agreed to let two hotels open on the palace grounds and have proposed licensing the image of the building for use on luxury watches.

In France, the caretakers of Versailles have agreed to let two hotels open on the palace grounds and have proposed licensing the image of the building for use on luxury watches. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Palazzo Manfrin in Venice.
(Paolo Steffan photo)

By Ariana Eunjung ChaWashington Post

Sun., July 15, 2012

VENICE—The once-majestic 17th-century Palazzo Manfrin, one of this city’s most important architectural sites, is falling apart. Its white, neoclassical facade is crumbling, several wooden doors are splintering, and its floor-to-ceiling frescoes have faded from age and water damage.

The dire condition of the building has catapulted it to the top of the local government’s list for restorations. But after multiple rounds of budget cuts, there simply isn’t enough money.

So this year, local leaders made a painful decision. They put the palace up for sale.

Two years into Europe’s financial crisis, which has governments slashing spending in a bid to tame runaway debts, the region is facing a cultural calamity for which there is no emergency bailout fund. Historical buildings, churches, monuments, bridges, barracks, archeological ruins and other sites are disintegrating from neglect.

Local governments, desperate to find a way to preserve these sites before it is too late, are making up for budget shortfalls by hanging ads, selling off usage rights and, in some cases, putting the structures themselves on the market.

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• In France, the caretakers of Versailles have agreed to let two hotels open on the palace grounds and have proposed licensing the image of the building for use on luxury watches.

• In Spain, planners eager for more tax revenue approved the construction of an office tower in the historic city centre of Seville near the Gothic cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried, ignoring threats from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to disqualify the city as a World Heritage site if the project proceeded.

• And in Greece, the government voted this year to open sites such as the Parthenon, the Poseidon Temple and Delphi to cinematographers willing to pay per-minute fees.

Italy, home to 47 UNESCO World Heritage sites and 60,000 documented archeological ruins — more than in any other country — is at the forefront of this trend.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, Bulgari, Ford and Hyundai have jumped at the opportunities. But in recent months, such deals have come under fire. Citizen groups have staged protests and filed lawsuits to try to stop officials from selling out the country’s cultural treasures for what they say are cheap, temporary returns.

“We are conscious that the perception of this in the public is not so positive,” said Fausta Bressani, director of cultural affairs for the region of Veneto, which includes Venice. “But our priority is to save the structure.”

The restoration of the Colosseum in Rome was supposed to start in March. But the work was stopped after a cultural preservation group revealed that what was being portrayed as a generous gift by Diego Della Valle, owner of luxury handbag maker Tod’s, actually came with strings. The agreement made by the city of Rome gives Della Valle exclusive rights to use the image of the Colosseum on his company’s products.

There has been a similar uproar in Venice, where the Benetton Group bought a centuries-old building that once housed the German trade mission to Venice, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, with plans to turn it into a shopping mall and gut parts of the interior to put in an escalator.

“Our monuments are being degraded by these exchanges of money between private and public powers. Are we so poor that we have to sell our grandfathers?” said Alessandra Mottola Molfino, national president of Italia Nostra, a cultural heritage group that has campaigned against the Colosseum and Fondaco di Tedeschi projects.

Government officials acknowledge that some of the deals are not ideal. But the officials are in a race against time.

No one wants to have another Pompeii, where a portion of the wall surrounding the ancient city collapsed in front of crowds of tourists in October 2011. It had been weakened by water damage and climbing ivy.

In a country that is a virtual museum, the idea of cultural sponsorships appealed to companies and governments alike, and a compromise was struck to allow billboard-size advertisements on scaffoldings, but only while restoration work was being done. Money raised from the ads would be used to fund the restoration, and any left over would go to the region’s general budget.

Venetian Paolo Giabardo, 47, has mixed feelings about the deals. He called the advertisements “really horrible.” But he said he recognizes that once a historical site is destroyed you cannot get it back.

UNESCO culture chief Francesco Bandarin said selling ads is “an acceptable measure” to fund conservation efforts at a time of financial difficulty. However, certain conditions must be met, he said, such as respecting the dignity of the monuments and informing the public of how the money would be spent.

“I do not think that all these principles were fully respected in Venice, where there have been several cases of excess,” he added.

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